Saturday, March 31, 2007

Cécilia, Sarkozy's Hillary?

Cecilia Sarkozy is most known for leaving her husband Nicolas in 2005 for another man in New York, and then returning a year later. But while keeping a low-profile since, Cecilia has been one of the most influential people behind the Sarkozy campaign, and as a communications expert, the proponent of his "softer image" approach.

She went to work as an unofficial adviser, organising events with young voters and adding her voice to those who were telling Sarkozy that he must soften his image if he was to compete with Ségolãne Royal, the Socialist candidate and first woman with a real chance of becoming president, for the female vote.

The result was a speech in which Sarkozy proclaimed, “I have changed”, and spoke about women’s issues such as combating female circumcision and creating more crèches.

Cécilia went on to secure the appointment of François de la Brosse, the husband of one of her friends, as a senior adviser to Sarkozy. He runs websites promoting the candidate to a youth audience, including one called Nicolas Sarkozy Television that shows video clips of the man in action.

1 comment:

You might want to point out for North American readers that "crèche," in this context, refers to a public daycare center. In the USA, for example, a crèche refers to a nativity scene (they are illegal in public structures, another church/state separation issue that some rightwing politicians have attempted to exploit).

In Latin countries such as Brazil and possibly France, a crèche supplies both education for very young children, medical advice & assistance for mothers, and sometimes several other social functions catering to women.